On a cold, rainy Saturday morning, I rushed to catch the bus that was parked at the Stockton Arts and Sciences building. The special occasion was a trip to Philadelphia to visit the Mummers Museum and the Italian Market. After the hour long bus ride to Philly, we finally made it to the Mummers Museum, where our three professors waited for us. The Museum had a glamorous outside design and once we stepped foot inside the museum, we were enthralled. The museum had a gift shop, costume displays, and furnished red carpets. A man who worked at the Mummers Museum guided us and gave us a detailed background of the Mummers history.  Every New Year’s, thousands of Philadelphians perform at the Mummers Parade. The costumes that the Mummers wear on New Year’s Day were stylistic. We wore some of the parade clothes and took a class photo. We really had a great time exploring the Mummers Museum and understanding Mummers tradition.

The next place we went to was the Italian market, which was similar to Jackson Heights in New York. Throughout a widespread area, the Italian market was full of meat and vegetable markets, restaurants, candy stores, gift shops etc. I was in a group of 9, including the honors mentors, as we explored the market. It has been forever since I last explored around the streets of Philadelphia. As we hiked throughout the Italian market, our group was hungry. We went to the first restaurant that was nearby us and it was called Ninas Trattoria. The waiter came to our table and was getting his sketchpad to take our orders. While he was walking around to take our orders, I was thinking carefully about my order. I had $12 in my wallet and most of the delicious food on the menu exceeded the amount of money I had. I had to order something that was under my budget. Even though there were $12 food items, I chose one that would be of less price. Finally, I ordered the broccoli fritatta. It had no meat, was a $9 meal, and sounded delicious. After waiting so long for my meal, it finally arrived. The broccoli fritatta, or broccoli omelet, was made of broccoli, fried potatoes, crisped onions and peppers, eggs, and mozzarella. However, I did not expect the broccoli to taste bitter. We all had our fill and thanked the waiter for the best food we had. The bus arrived after a half hour and it was time for us to go back. Throughout the whole field trip, I had a taste of refined Philadelphian culture and will hope to return again someday.

Jennifer Ling

The Voice

On November 12, 2014, I attended Stockton’s event “The Voice,” sponsored by the Stockton Entertainment Team (SET). This event was based off the television singing competition The Voice. The competition began with ten singers, all of whom sang brief portions of their song of choice. The judges chose students based on their first song to be on their team. Each judge had approximately three students on their team and met with them privately to discuss their team “game plan.”

While the teams were meeting to discuss which songs would be sung next, pretzels and root beer floats were provided for the students who came to support the event. After about 10 minutes, each contestant sang a snippet from another song of their choosing. Subsequently, four finalists were chosen from the group. The four finalists sang one last song and finally a winner was chosen. Each of the four finalists was rewarded with a $25 gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings.

Overall, the event was fun to watch and be involved with; however, it was slightly unorganized. The judges were confused of what their role was and did not know they were choosing students to be on their team until the third contestant sang. It took a lot of time to sort out issues that should have been discussed before the event started. Despite the few organizational problems, the event was fun and interesting.

On Thursday, October 30, the SET club held a Lolla No Booza party in the event room at the Campus Center as a nonalcoholic Halloween party. It was a free party where one can dress up, dance, win prizes, eat, and just have fun without the assistance of alcohol. At the dance there were tables with drinks that were to represent alcoholic drinks minus the alcohol, made in fun and creative ways in order to send the message that parties can be enjoyable without alcohol. It was a huge success as many people, including me, arrived to the event. The DJ was very good, and next to the DJ were TVs that would play the music videos of the songs he played, which was interesting. I was very glad I went, and I even won a spa gift card.

I dressed up as Alice from Alice in Wonderland, and I loved dressing up in my costume, and also seeing what others were dressed up as for Halloween. We ate pizza, which SET made sure was well stocked with boxes stacked high of plain and pepperoni pizza pies. We were each given a round of tickets at the door, and then went to the back of the room to place our tickets on prizes we wished to win. A common theme in the prize baskets was definitely Ramen noodles and Easy-Mac; I think there was definitely a food theme involved. There was a chance to win spa gift cards, a free TV, tickets to amusement parks, gift cards to stores and shops, and many other options.

We danced for the rest of the time until the lights turned on and we were kicked out; we had so much fun dancing and singing to our favorite songs remixed to dance to. Later on, the dance ran a costume contest in which my friend, Becca, came in second place. Then, there was a dance contest in which my other friend, Brian, came in second place. We had a lot of fun, and I was very happy that I went to the event. The party was able to mix fun with a little education, which is a hard feat to overcome. Overall, the event was very successful and had a big turnout; it definitely persuaded me to go to Lolla No Booza next year.

Cassidy Troy

Professor McGovern

Life of the Mind

21 November 2014

It is a play that touches upon loss, sorrow, family issues, with a balance of comedy. Last week, I got the privilege of seeing the theatre play titled, Crumble, (Lay Me Down Justin Timberlake), directed by Kate Sparacio, a senior Theatre major with Visual Arts and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies minors. Sparacio displayed her understanding for the deeper undertones and meanings during the play itself, and during the “Talk Back” session after Thursday’s show on November 13^th, which I attended. The play had five characters in total, and they all had vital roles that the Stockton students accurately and realistically captured. Nicole Clark played the mother, John Wisienski played multiple roles as the father/Justin Timberlake/Harrison Ford, Madelaine Welch played Janice, the daughter, Phoebe Gruetter played Barbara, the aunt, and Evan Williamson played the role of the Apartment.

The show is mainly focused around the topic of loss and the death of the father and how the mother, Janice, and the Apartment are coping with the given situation. During the course of the play, the audience sees the frustration develop among all of the characters and how they each deal with their own losses separately. The mother is shown to neglect Janice and the Apartment, as she distracts herself from her woes through her occupation as a chef. The audience can feel empathy with this character as she is struggling to balance her job, the care she is supposed to be showing to both Janice and the Apartment, along with her sorrow. The character Janice is eleven years old, and mostly keeps to herself as she copes by hindering her feelings of the loss of her father from everyone except her dolls. She is a troubled child, who does not know how to appropriately react to her loss, (later in the play, Janice uses her resources as she tries to construct a bomb to end both her mother and her sufferings, but winds up losing her right hand in the process). During the play, Janice has more dialogue with her dolls and with the nonliving elements of the play compared to dialogue with any actual living character. Barbara, the aunt tries to give Janice advice, and acts as a mother figure to her mainly because Barbara is infertile and cannot have children. Barbara is dealing with the loss of fertility and copes with this loss by owning 57 cats, along with wanting to be a mother figure to Janice.

Kate Sparacio pinpointed the reason she chose this play when I listened to the “Talk Back” session. Sparacio mentioned that all the male characters were not real. I was fascinated when she discussed how the father is just a formulated memory for the mother and Janice. The father is not actually real in the play; for Janice, her mind creates the memory of her father as Justin Timberlake, and the mother creates the memory of her husband as Harrison Ford. The roles of these two made-up characters, (Timberlake and Ford), act as displays of how the mother and Janice actually viewed the father. The play hints at a possibly sexually abusive relationship between Janice and her father, and also hints that the father was viewed as a hero, like Indiana Jones, for the mother. The Apartment was another character that was not real. He expressed the lack of care for him after the death of the father. He is neglected, and is crumbling every day more and more. The play is very symbolic and expresses many different topics throughout such as the different ways to cope with loss, the different views a person can have of a person who was lost, etc. The play showed the strength of having characters that were inanimate, yet they still expressed emotion through themselves as well as the other characters in the play.

I was so pleased that I found the time to go to the show, Crumble, (Lay Me Down Justin Timberlake), because it was completely worth my time. The “Talk Back” was also interesting mainly because by listening, I learned a lot of what the play was about beneath the surface. I learned about all the thought and consideration that went into costume design, especially the fact that the father wore his wedding ring throughout the entire show, a subtlety that I did not notice until it was pointed out by the costume designer, Chelsea Regan, was a very significant touch. The play was extraordinary and the discussion directly after further developed my understanding of all of its elements. I truly enjoyed this production very much.

Dana Fellerman

GEN 1033, Honors: Life of the Mind

Dr. McGovern

11.19.2014

On Sunday September 21^th, 2014 I volunteered to march in the People’s Climate March in New York City at Columbus Circle with S.A.V.E (Stockton Action Volunteers for the Environment) with approximately 35 other students and staff representing Stockton College. The People’s Climate March is an annual event that not only takes place in New York but also around the globe where people gather from far and wide to voice their position on issues regarding the environment. These issues include global warming, fossil fuels, renewable energy, water, and other environmental issues that deserve to be brought into the spotlight for the government to take into consideration to make laws for.

The day started at around 7:00 a.m. where potential marchers and I boarded a bus to be brought to Columbus Circle to start our march. This bus ride was about two hours to two and a half hours long as Stockton College is far from New York City but once we arrived we grouped up and waited to march. While the march started at 11:30 a.m. the group and I did not start moving right away as there were so many people in the streets. During the march many people were carrying either signs that were provided by the People’s Climate March community or even brought their own homemade signs with creative slogans about the issue they were marching for. People also cheered marchers on, chanted their slogans, sung and played musical instruments to encourage bystanders to watch and make a point that these issues should not be overlooked by the government.

It took approximately six hours to march five miles from Columbus Circle, to 59^th street, 6^th Ave. to 42^nd street and 11^th Ave. then finally down 34^th street to the end of the parade. While on the bus ride home I felt very accomplished that this march went well and that it was my very first serious march. It was then noted that about 400,000 people attended the march in New York City and I was astounded that so many people would take time out of their day, like the group and I, to come out and voice concerns over the environment. I find these marches very effective because a diverse amount of issues are being expressed by a variety of people and with an event as big as 400,000 people marching through the streets of New York it is hard to turn a blind eye to these issues.

Olivia Gorecke

Prof. L. Rosner

Life of the Mind

19 October 2014

One Night Stand Up

On Friday, October 10th, Stockton Entertainment Team hosted two notable comedians, Nicole Byer and Kevin Barnett, in a one-night comedy show held in the sports center.  This event brought out an immense crowd who visibly enjoyed themselves, making for an incredibly successful evening.

Capping off an eventful Spirit Day, SET’s One Night Stand Up concluded a day that included float decorating, spirit night, and the athletics hall of fame induction ceremony, to name a few.  Immediately following Stockton’s Spirit Night, the One Night Stand Up definitely drew the biggest crowd.

I went to the show with a few friends, most of whom are commuters like myself.  It was great that something we all wanted to attend was at such a convenient time, one that worked for all of us.  Nicole Byer, who is my favorite comedian on Girl Code, opened the night.  She easily transferred her notorious MTV humor to relatable college troubles.  While Byer was great and received a lot of laughs, she touched on a few issues that are particularly sensitive to college students, such as weight and suicide.  Overall though, she was a wonderful performer and I look forward to seeing her appearances on Girl Code.  While Byer was a wonderful portion of the evening, Kevin Barnett absolutely stole the show.  A regular on MTV’s Guy Code, Barnett was absolutely hysterical.  Overall, the night was an incredible success.  I hope Stockton continues to feature events like this at such convenient times, as it makes it much more accessible to commuters like myself who still wish to participate in campus life.

The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey hosted its 2014 homecoming festivities the weekend of October 9^th through 12^th.  “Heroic Homecoming and Family Weekend”, as it was titled, was sponsored by the office of student development in an effort to enhance school spirit amongst students, family, and alumni.  Sports events, art galleries, performances, formal dances, comedians, and guest speakers were scheduled to fill the weekend with excitement.  The main family event, however, took place the morning of Saturday, October 10^th, in the Big Blue gymnasium.  Families and students were invited to watch clubs and organizations drive their decorated golf carts around the gym, and then welcomed to stay after for a barbeque and carnival.

Though the parade and carnival were originally scheduled to be held outside in parking lot five, inclement weather forced the event indoors.  Families and spectators sat along the bleachers while each club prepared the final touches on the golf carts.  Organizations represented at the parade included the Student Entertain Team, Greek Life, Theater club, Cooking club, Physics club, and many others.  Each one was decorated in accordance with the superhero theme; for example, the American Sign Language club’s cart featured ‘The Blue Ear’, a deaf super hero.  Each club selected a driver, and the carts were led around the gymnasium twice to the enjoyment of all, including judges.

After the parade, students and visitors were entertained by Stockton’s Faculty Band. Bounce houses and games were available for the young and young-at-heart, and barbeque meals were sold.  Despite the inclement weather outside, the party was lively inside Big Blue.  I enjoyed seeing the creativity of each student organization’s golf cart, and I also enjoyed the school spirit that flowed into each person, young or old, who walked into the gym.  The 2014 Heroic Homecoming parade and carnival was a success.